Patterns that BRANDS could identify and avoid

Now that consumers have evolved, it’s getting more and more difficult to sustain a Brand. Here's what Marketers should be doing or avoiding:

1. Being too functional/Tactical: Are we not suppose to be selling a benefit and not the functions of a product..? Functionality can go hand in hand with the emotional benefits it offers. An emotional connect fortifies a long term connection with customers. For instance: Apple. Does anyone check iPad 2’s specifications?
2.  Keeping the brand caged up for too long: good/bad
3. Trap of mundane products: great brands grow by earning revenues and profits from newer products which take current footprints to newer opportunities. But some brands, very curiously, seem to prefer launching products in saturated markets. Which one proves to be the best option?
4.  No investing in innovation: An enhanced feature today is a must have tomorrow. When brands don’t invest in innovation, they gravitate to playing the price game, constantly slashing the prices of their products.
5. Following competitors: industry bench-marking is good as long as it helps contextualize business performance. But a feature by feature comparison and consequent ‘reverse’ engineering efforts are nothing but blindly following the competitors. Each brand has its unique DNA which can hardly be copied.
6. Inconsistencies in the MIX: customers are perceptive about the messages that brands are giving them. Any inconsistency in the marketing mix arouses doubts. For instance: Kingfisher Airlines.

Brand YOU (Part 1)

Am sure we all know about our favorite Brands. We can slot people into neat, Tupperware-tight, pigeonholes of steel by just a single, seemingly-cursory glance at their feet: Jimmy choo= Fabulous. Ed Hardy= Cheesy. Bata/ Catwalk= Social Disaster. Zara= Classy. And so on...

But how much time have we spent thinking about the most important Brand in our lives? No, it’s not your perfume nor the brand name emblazoned on the butt of your jeans. Not the make of the car you drive. Not the cripplingly expensive IB School to which you’re sending your children.

The most important brand in your life is YOU: You’re a Brand


In a nutshell, a brand is a product trying to be a person.

The good news is that you’re already a person! But are you the kind of person who is able to compete successfully in the marketplace of your life, for your rightful share of love, respect, party-invitations, promotions, compliments,  upgrades-to-Business Class, Kisses from Kiddies, the spot light at PTA meetings, Page-3 write-ups, the attention of the best hairstylist in the salon, plum assignments and ma-in-law approval?? 

In short, are you getting the Bhaav you think you’re worth?

(Trust me, at this point you may think this is all a little cynical and/or pathetic: plotting and scheming for bhaav and calling yourself a brand and all. But this is important, because if you don’t decide and tell people exactly who you are and what you’re made of; people will do it for you…)

Think about it. If a baby remained unnamed for a long time, it would end up being called Chotu or Junior or Munni or Baba; because that is what the people around would call him/her. And the baby would be stuck with that name, all its life.

But if it was to be communicated clearly and firmly to the world that the baby’s name is Vijay, then they would immediately associate the baby with victory and King of Good Times’ Vijay Mallya.

So, if you don’t want to end up being labeled something totally inane like mole-on-left-cheek-girl or sits-next-to-Seema girl or that-one-in-the-tight-pants, you better give your target Audience a damn good reason to remember and respect you.

That’s what being a brand is all about..!!  

Time out for Indian Reality TV Shows..!!

Truth - Reality TV shows just doesn't make the cut..!!   Reality TV is supposed to be stomach churning atrocious and single-minded focus on the dregs of our society. It’s supposed to scream "LOOK! This is what happens when we collect every ounce of STUPIDITY in our country and video-tape it!" It should explain everything that is going wrong in the country in one stroke...rite??

Take America, for instance, I watch every possible show including HIMYM, Prison Break, Lost, Vampire Dairies, Entourage and so on. Legendary shows like F.R.I.E.N.D.S., Heroes, Sex and the city. I also saw American Idol and understood how Britney Spears got popular. I saw Dog The Bounty Hunter, and so understood how George W Bush got elected. Every show gives you the reason to watch it again and again...Isn't it?

Indian reality TV doesn't do that. If I have to watch another Dance-off show, I'm going to get a nosebleed. One has TV stars, another has ordinary couples, one has wife swapping, another has entire family going at it, with poor Dad looking he's straining to avoid a hernia and a coronary at the same time.  

And where's the drama, really? The best we could manage was Rakhi Sawant storming off stage because she lost, drama queens like Dolly Bindra and now Pooja Mishra in Bigg Boss. Pah! I did that at my third standard school play. Simply put, our trash is just isn't trashy enough to make it worth viewing...   

Take MTV's Splitsvilla, for instance, it was a temptation Island knocking off that really wasn't that temptation. The premise was simple. 20 vapid women vie for the attention of 2 vapid men.the men weren't in pre-existing relationships. no one was going to split up with anyone by the end of the show. So why call it splitsvilla?  not one of the girls said or did anything shocking enough for me to continue with the show.

...And the Trash continued including Axe your ex (Seriously!!), TLC, Emotional Atyachaar, Super Stud (I mean which sensible guy would want to take lessons from Ashmit Patel..??),   Date Trap, Crunch, Love Kiya Toh Darna Kya...Blah Blah Blah.

On most reality shows, I can't even tell one contestant from the other. ther're all the same. Gone are the days of Distinct- shade of Disgusting, which is actually needed. 

All, however, may not be lost.  Few weeks ago, I saw what maybe a ray of Trashy hope, a template of wretched behavior that all reality shows should study and learn from. I saw a program that had a bunch of Hooligans screaming, being obnoxious, throwing money all around and genuinely being a massively entertaining riot. So, for all you TV Reality producers who want to learn how it's done, what I was watching was a live session of Parliament on Lok Sabha TV on the day of the Government's trust vote.

Who says our politicians can't show us the way forward?